Children of God / The Family International
Founded by David 'Moses' Berg in 1968. From 1976 to 1987 practised 'Flirty Fishing' (using sex for evangelism and recruitment) and published 'Mo Letters' explicitly endorsing sexual contact between adults and children. Reorganised as 'The Family International' in 2004.
CLCI radar
BITE breakdown
+1 for documented systematic child sexual abuse and the 'Flirty Fishing' practice.
Profile facts
In context
David Berg, a former Christian and Missionary Alliance minister, founded what became Children of God in 1968 among young converts on the Huntington Beach, California boardwalk, styling the movement as a radical, communal, apocalyptic form of Jesus-movement Christianity. Under Berg's absolute authority, transmitted to followers worldwide through a continuous stream of mimeographed 'Mo Letters,' the group expanded into communal homes across dozens of countries through the 1970s and 1980s.
The documented record here is unusually explicit and unusually severe. Berg's letters from the mid-1970s introduced 'Flirty Fishing,' in which female members were directed to use sex to recruit and retain male converts and donors, a practice officially ended in 1987 amid AIDS concerns. Other Mo Letters from the same period contained material that explicitly normalized and endorsed sexual contact between adults and children, and numerous former second-generation members have testified that this doctrine translated into real abuse within communal children's homes, where children were often raised collectively and kept apart from their biological parents. Members were expected to surrender personal property and income to the group and to sever ties with the outside 'Systemite' world, reinforced by a constant sense of imminent apocalyptic Tribulation.
The abuse allegations were substantiated well beyond individual testimony. A 1995 ruling by a UK High Court judge, Lord Justice Ward, in a custody case examined extensive internal documents and found that sexual abuse of children had occurred within the group. Raids and prosecutions followed in Argentina and elsewhere in the early 1990s and through the decade, generally centered on child-welfare custody disputes rather than producing criminal convictions of Berg himself, who died in 1994 before ever facing prosecution. The case that brought the most sustained public attention was the 2005 murder-suicide of Ricky Rodriguez — the son of Berg's partner Karen Zerby, raised as the movement's 'chosen one' and heir apparent — who killed a former nanny he said had abused him before killing himself, an act he explained in a video testimony released before his death.
The organization reorganized in 2004 as The Family International, disavowed the earlier sexual doctrines, and continues today as a much smaller, lower-profile group. It remains one of the most thoroughly documented cases of leader-directed sexual abuse embedded in official doctrine among twentieth-century new religious movements, and it illustrates how a single charismatic founder's personal writings, treated as scripture by followers, can institutionalize harm across a global network of communal homes.
Key control doctrines
- 'God is love, sex is love' (Mo Letters)
- Flirty Fishing
- Total community of property
- Imminent end-times Tribulation
Recovery resources
- xFamily archive — Long-running second-generation-survivor archive for ex-Children of God / Family International; canonical resource for case-specific material.
- ICSA (International Cultic Studies Association) — ICSA archive covers COG / Family International extensively including Ward 1995 ruling material.
- INFORM (Information Network on Religious Movements) — LSE-founded UK research-based information service; substantial COG historical archive.
- Freedom of Mind Resource Center — Steven Hassan's organisation; BITE-model resources.
See the full curated list at /resources.
Notable public ex-members
- Ricky Rodriguez (deceased 2005)
- Christina Babin
- Kristina Jones
- Verity Carter
Legal cases & controversies
- Multiple 1990s European custody cases over child welfare
- UK Lord Justice Ward 1995 ruling documenting abuse
- Argentinian and Brazilian raids and prosecutions
Evidence by BITE axis
- Explicit doctrinal endorsement of adult-child sexual contact (1980s)
- 'Flirty Fishing' use of female members for sex-evangelism
- Children raised communally, separated from parents
- 'God is love, sex is love' (Mo Letters)
- +1 for documented systematic child sexual abuse and the 'Flirty Fishing' practice
- Total separation from 'Systemite' (outside) world
- Members surrender all property and income
- Flirty Fishing
- Total community of property
- Imminent end-times Tribulation
- Extreme apocalyptic urgency
Timeline
- 1968David Berg founds Teens for Christ in Huntington Beach, CA
- 1974First 'Flirty Fishing' Letter published
- 1987Flirty Fishing officially ended after AIDS concerns
- 2004Reorganises as 'The Family International'
- 2005Ricky Rodriguez murder-suicide draws international attention
Evidence matrix
Structured sources cross-linked to the claims they document. Tiered per the source hierarchy. For free-text citations see the Sources section below.
Academic literature
Most-cited scholarly works whose titles match “Children of God” in the OpenAlex catalog (673 matching works total).
- Creation Eagerly Waits for the Children of God to be Revealed (Rom 8:18–30) A Bible StudyVicky Balabanski · ATF Press eBooks · 2018 · 44 citations
- The Organization and Functioning of the Children of GodRex Davis, James T. Richardson · Sociological Analysis · 1976 · 35 citations
- Life in the family: an oral history of the Children of GodChoice Reviews Online · 2001 · 31 citations
- Living in the Children of GodDavid E. Van Zandt · Princeton University Press eBooks · 1991 · 30 citations
- Children of GodJason Van Vliet · Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht eBooks · 2009 · 27 citations
Retrieved 2026-08-22. Metadata verbatim from the OpenAlex API; inclusion is bibliographic, not endorsement.
Sources
- James Chancellor, 'Life in The Family' (2000) search ↗
- Stephen Kent academic work search ↗
- Ricky Rodriguez 2005 video testimony search ↗
- BBC 'World in Action' investigations search ↗
- From Radical Jesus People to Virtual Religion (2023) — https://doi.org/10.1017%2F9781009037990 open ↗
- Young man's suicide blamed on mother's cult — http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/12/04/kaye.murdersuicide/ open ↗
- Life after a sex cult: 'If I'm not a member of this religion any more, then who am I? — https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/11/children-of-god-church-sex-cult-texas-mexico-fbi open ↗
- A true conversion? — https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-03-21-vw-13345-story.html open ↗
- The Family and The Children of God: A Legal History (CESNUR) — https://www.cesnur.org/testi/TheFamily/ open ↗
- Accommodation and Reformation in The Family/Children of God — Nova Religio (2005) — https://doi.org/10.1525%2Fnr.2005.9.1.067 open ↗
- Have I just joined another cult?': Daniella grew up in The Family, then joined the army — https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-27/daniella-cult-the-family-joined-the-army-toxic-control/101895164 open ↗
- The Life and Death of the 'Children of God' Messiah — https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/children-of-god-cult-messiah-chosen-one-182272/ open ↗
- Juliana Buhring becomes first woman to cycle round the world as she pedals into Naples after 152 days on the road — https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/9763072/Juliana-Buhring-becomes-first-woman-to-cycle-round-the-world-as-she-pedals-into-Naples-after-152-days-on-the-road.html open ↗
- Work, pray, fear: my life in the Family cult — https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/nov/27/family-religious-cult-former-member-recalls-experiences open ↗
- Guardian journalist helped me see a way out, ex-cult member recalls — https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/07/guardian-journalist-helped-me-see-way-out-ex-children-of-god-cult-member open ↗
- Women After the Utopia — Journal of Contemporary Ethnography (2002) — https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0891241602031003003 open ↗
- Misattribution and social control in the children of god — Journal of Religion and Health (1994) — https://doi.org/10.1007%2FBF02354497 open ↗
- The Moral Career of a New Religious Movement — http://www2.oakland.edu/oujournal/files/Shepherd.pdf open ↗
- Murder and Suicide Reviving Claims of Child Abuse in Cult — http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/15/national/15cult.html open ↗
- 30 Members of Children of God Arrested — https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/cult/children_of_god/main.htm open ↗
- The Children of God/The Family — https://www.icsahome.com/articles/the-children-of-godthe-family-raine open ↗
- The Family International Britannica Article — http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/701799/The-Family-International open ↗
- Children of God cult was 'hell on earth — https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-44613932 open ↗
- WashingtonPost.com: The Cult Controversy — https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/cult/children_of_god/child1.htm open ↗
- Murder and Suicide Reviving Claims of Child Abuse in Cult — https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/15/us/murder-and-suicide-reviving-claims-of-child-abuse-in-cult.html open ↗
- On tape, son of 'prophet' declares war on mother / Video he left behind sheds new light on his split with cult — https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/on-tape-son-of-prophet-declares-war-on-mother-2736889.php open ↗
- Field Observations of Young People's Experience and Role in The Family — http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20020914213946/http://www.thefamily.org/dossier/books/book1/chapter5.htm open ↗
- Os casos judiciais de Os Meninos de Deus/A Família na Argentina, 1987–1995: Uma História Documentada — http://www.cesnur.org/testi/TheFamily/argentina.htm open ↗
- Os casos judiciais de Os Meninos de Deus/A Família na França, 1991–2000 — http://www.cesnur.org/testi/TheFamily/france.htm open ↗
- lire en ligne — https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1993/06/11/enfants-de-dieu-famille-d-amour_3946901_1819218.html open ↗
- lire en ligne — https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1976/02/26/un-ancien-adepte-des-enfants-de-dieu-aurait-ete-victime-d-un-meurtre-rituel_2960570_1819218.html open ↗
- lire en ligne — https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1994/11/29/en-bref-secte-mort-de-david-berg-fondateur-des-enfants-de-dieu_3850343_1819218.html open ↗
- lire en ligne — https://www.la-croix.com/France/Sectes-France-retour-quatre-grandes-affaires-judiciaires-2023-03-09-1201258424 open ↗
- https://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/12/04/kaye.murdersuicide/index.html — https://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/12/04/kaye.murdersuicide/index.html open ↗
We cite sources by name and outlet rather than fabricating links. Where a source includes its own URL, the open ↗ link opens it directly; otherwise search ↗ runs a Google Scholar query for the cited title — useful for verifying academic sources. For news outlets, search the outlet's own archive.
Change history
Substantive edits logged per the score-updates policy.
- 2026-05-29Phase 1 Batch I: per-group recovery resources curated. 4 verified entries: xFamily archive (canonical second-generation survivor resource), ICSA, INFORM, Freedom of Mind.
- 2026-05-20Source-density flags derived from existing free-text sources[]: academic sources, investigative journalism. Heuristic auto-flag; subsequent editorial pass will populate structuredSources[] with reliability tiers.
- 2026-05-20Score band scheme migrated from 4 bands to 5 (Minimal 0–5 / Low 6–12 / Moderate 13–20 / High 21–30 / Extreme 31–40). No CLCI value changed; the new Minimal band was carved out of the bottom of the previous Low band.
Key terms in this profile
Relevant hubs
Curated entry points on CLCI Hub for situations connected to this group.
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Frequently asked questions
Q.Is Children of God / The Family International a cult?
CLCI Hub deliberately avoids the binary label "cult." Instead it places groups on a transparent 0–40 spectrum of documented control using Steven Hassan's BITE model (Behaviour, Information, Thought, Emotional). Children of God / The Family International scores 38 out of 40 — "Destructive / Extreme", at high confidence. The score describes documented control patterns, not a judgement of members' sincerity or beliefs; many members do not personally experience the patterns listed.
Q.What is Children of God / The Family International's CLCI score?
Children of God / The Family International scores 38 out of 40 on the Cult-Like Control Index, which falls in the "Extreme" band. That total is the sum of four BITE axes — Behaviour 10, Information 9, Thought 9, Emotional 9 — plus a signed modifier of +1 for aggravating or mitigating factors.
Q.Why does Children of God / The Family International score 38 on the CLCI?
The score reflects publicly documented patterns including: Explicit doctrinal endorsement of adult-child sexual contact (1980s); 'Flirty Fishing' use of female members for sex-evangelism; Total separation from 'Systemite' (outside) world; Children raised communally, separated from parents. These map onto the BITE axes of behaviour, information, thought, and emotional control, and a signed modifier of +1 is applied for factors such as financial demands, leadership accountability, and exit costs. Every claim is backed by the citations in the Sources section on this page.
Q.How reliable is the Children of God / The Family International rating?
This profile is rated High confidence. High confidence means the score is backed by court records, academic work, and/or sustained investigative journalism. CLCI scores are not fixed — they are revised whenever new public evidence appears, and groups that reform can score lower over time.
Q.Where can I get help regarding Children of God / The Family International?
If you or someone you care about is affected by Children of God / The Family International, start with the Recovery resources listed on this page. General cult-aware support is available from the International Cultic Studies Association (icsahome.com) and the Freedom of Mind Resource Center (freedomofmind.com). CLCI Hub is an educational resource, not a crisis service — if anyone is in immediate danger, contact local emergency services.
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